§ The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Sir David Maxwell Fyfe)With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I will make a further brief statement about the flooded areas on the East Coast.
The latest figure of deaths known to the police is 256.
The Government have under urgent consideration the question of dispersing the persons who have had to leave their homes and are now in rest centres. As it becomes possible to rehouse the victims of this disaster, it is certain that furniture will be required, and arrangements have been made to store in a Ministry of Works depot at Royston any gifts of furniture which members of the public are willing to make. Details of the scheme will be announced shortly.
The police gave warning to the public in certain areas last night to be on their guard against the possibility of further flooding during the high tide, but I am glad to inform the House that for the most part the repairs effected to our defences withstood the limited danger to 2035 which we were exposed last night; and there was only slight fresh flooding in very limited areas. The danger from the high tides beginning on 14th February, to which I referred yesterday, still remains.
My right hon. Friend the Minister of Health wishes me to assure the House that the state of public health in the flooded areas gives, at present at any rate, no cause for anxiety, although he is closely watching the position.
I am glad to be able to inform the House that the morale and conduct of the population have been exemplary and that there have been only isolated cases of theft. The police are paying special attention to protecting property in the absence of the householders. The task of the police and of all those engaged in relief and repair operations would be greatly facilitated if the public would refrain from paying unnecessary visits to the area.
Offers of assistance, for which Her Majesty's Government are very grateful, continue to come in from Commonwealth and foreign countries. We for our part are giving such help to the Netherlands Government as is in our power, including the loan of British and Canadian sappers from the Army of the Rhine.
§ Mr. H. MorrisonThe House will thank the right hon. and learned Gentleman for this further statement. We all deplore the widespread suffering which exists. Following the point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, West (Mr. Pannell), I should like the Government to consider the provision on their part of a reasonably early day—I think it should be fairly soon—on which this matter could be debated. There are a considerable number of hon. Members whose constituencies are affected, and I think we ought to have a general discussion about the matter.
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeAs my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House has said, the point which the right hon. Member for Lewisham, South (Mr. H. Morrison) has made will be noted.
§ Mr. JannerMay I ask the right hon. and learned Gentleman what steps have been taken about requisitioning houses in order to accommodate people who 2036 have been evacuated? Will he take into consideration the possibility of encouraging the requisitioning of houses outside the flooded district itself for those who wish to go to relatives who are not living within the district of the floods? This is an extremely important matter. Probably the right hon. and learned Gentleman is aware that encouragement to requisition housing has not been given to anything like the extent to which it should have been given in the past.
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeWith respect, I could not agree with the last statement. A very full statement was made by my right hon. Friend yesterday on the question of requisitioning, first of all for welfare purposes and then on the further question of housing needs. He assured the House—and I repeat the assurance—that both aspects are receiving full consideration, but I am grateful to the hon. Member for the special point which he has raised today, and I can assure him that it will be taken into account.
§ Mr. LewisHas the right hon. and learned Gentleman's attention been drawn to the report of the Essex County Council and the Benfleet Urban District Council that they are finding difficulty in arranging for billets and billetees' money because there appears to have been a withdrawal of the billeting order? If that is the case, will the Home Secretary take the necessary steps immediately to introduce this billeting order to give councils the right to billet and to pay the money on behalf of the billetees?
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeI have been considering that point today, and I have taken certain steps which I believe will deal with the position and will prevent difficulties about money over the weekend and until the middle of next week. I should be grateful if the hon. Gentleman would ask me about it again, for I hope to be in a position early next week to make a statement about the situation.
§ Mr. Langford-HoltHas my right hon. and learned Friend's attention been drawn to a reported offer by the Canadian Government with a view to rehabilitating those who wish it in the Dominion? Could my right hon. and learned Friend say what steps he has taken to see that that offer does not go by default?
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeI should be grateful if my hon. Friend would leave that matter for a little while, since it needs consideration.
§ Mr. DoddsIn view of the fact that the County Medical Officer of Health for Kent last night found it necessary to telephone the principal housing officer of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government asking that the request of the Erith Borough Council to requisition houses be permitted, has the right hon. and learned Gentleman any change of heart to report on the part of the Government towards this urgent human problem?
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeI have made inquiries about this question. It is a health matter, and the House may be assured that my right hon. Friend the Minister of Health will take such action as he is advised is necessary on health grounds. He has been in touch with the County Medical Officer of Health, who has advised him that he is satisfied that, for the time being, arrangements are adequate and that he would not press the local authority, on health grounds, to clear the rest centres. As I have stated earlier, however, the clearance of rest centres is receiving urgent consideration and, indeed, must be considered with the greatest urgency we can command.
§ Mr. NicholsonHave the Government contemplated any further measures to give expression to the very deep sympathy felt in this country for the Netherlands, whose disaster is many times more grave than ours—both practical and other measures? I feel that we have lost sight of that aspect a little.
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeOur sympathy has been expressed, and I am sure the House would wish me to take the opportunity which my hon. Friend has given to express it again, but he must have failed to hear the last words of my statement. With permission, I will read the last sentence again:
We for our part are giving such help to the Netherlands Government as is in our power; including the loan of British and Canadian sappers from the Army of the Rhine.In addition to the help of manpower, we are also giving help in materials. My hon. Friend may rest assured that we shall continue to do so.
§ Mr. PannellWill the right hon. and learned Gentleman reconsider this question of the early clearing of the rest centres? Will he bear in mind that all our experience in the blitz during the war proved that after 48 hours people had recovered from the first psychological reaction to their troubles and had begun to assert their sense of values? They wanted to get home again, all sorts of discontents crept in and public morale fell because people wanted to carry on their normal form of business. The idea in Erith, which is that these rest centres should be kept open for a fortnight or three weeks, with 70 people sleeping in a room, is not the sort of situation which the local inhabitants envisaged. Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman again consider the plain request of the County Medical Officer of Health—
§ The Minister of Health (Mr. Iain Macleod)indicated dissent—
§ Mr. PannellThe Minister shakes his head, but I reckon to know the affairs of Kent rather better than he does. Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman consider the request of the County Medical Officer of Health that, on welfare grounds, the county should be able to requisition these 20 properties?
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeOn the first question which the hon. Member has raised. which I am sure is within the hearts as well as the minds of everybody in the House, I should like to say this—and I hope it will be a reassurance. The House may remember that in my first statement I said there were 6,000 people in rest centres. It is very difficult to get the exact figure. No one knows better than the hon. Gentleman that some people go away and come back for meals, and so on, and it is difficult to know what are the limits within which one should estimate. Making every allowance for the possibility of being too optimistic about the matter, I estimate that the figure now is well below half what I stated it to be in my first statement two days ago, and it is decreasing with every half day that passes. But that, I quite agree, while it is reassuring, is no reason for our stopping our urgent consideration of this matter, and again I promise it to the House.
§ Lieut.-Colonel LiptonIs the Secretary of State aware of the statement made by the acting chairman of the Benfleet Council to the following effect:
We are sick to death of frustration and red tape. Nearly everything we try to do is turned down by officials"?If that kind of statement is being made by responsible members of the local authorities concerned, will the right hon and learned Gentleman take steps to ensure that circumstances giving rise to statements of that kind are brought to an end at the soonest possible moment?
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeI have already given the assurance. I think that when anyone brings a specific case it is right that I should look into it. I have given the general picture, and I have been as careful as I could not to make it overoptimistic. I assure the House that we are seized of the problem and will deal with it as quickly as we can.